How to Make Fresh Pizza Sauce at Home

Bored of the store-bought pizza sauces packed with preservatives? You don’t necessarily need to simmer pizza sauce on the stove for hours to get tasty results. With a few easy ingredients, you can put together a fresh and homemade pizza sauce in under an hour. The biggest secret - pick sweet, plump and meaty tomatoes from your vegetable vendor.

Quick recipe for a no-cook pizza sauce

Ingredients

850 g whole or diced fresh tomatoes

6 to 8 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons fresh oregano or basil leaves, finely chopped

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

Salt to taste

Fresh pepper

Olive oil

Preparation

Fresh tomatoes tend to make a watery sauce. For a thicker and more concentrated sauce, squeeze and strain the tomatoes off their extra juices before blending. The pulp of the tomatoes will form the base.

Then, combine the pulp with garlic, basil/oregano, vinegar, salt, black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil in a blender until they’re completely pureed.

Do a taste test, and add more salt, pepper, or olive oil if needed. If you’ve added anything extra, blend again for a few seconds to combine well. Remember, too much blending will make the sauce runny and you want a nice, thick version.

Fresh out of the blender, your zippy pizza sauce is ready. Refrigerate unused sauce for up to a week, or freeze pizza sauce for up to three months.

When you have the luxury of time

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves, finely chopped

½ teaspoon red chilli flakes

½ teaspoon dried oregano

850 g whole peeled tomatoes, mashed

Salt to taste

½ teaspoon white sugar

1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground

1 small pinch baking soda

Preparation

Heat olive oil over medium-low heat in a saucepan. After a minute, mix garlic into the oil and cook for another minute, until fragrant.

Time for the fresh oregano. Throw that in and cook on low heat for two to three minutes until oregano is flaccid.

If you like your sauce a bit pungent, mix in red chilli flakes, else skip it.

Sprinkle the dried oregano into the olive oil mixture. Finally, toss in the key ingredient, the tomatoes.

Bring the sauce to a simmer and season with salt, sugar, and black pepper.

Turn heat to low; simmer for 40 minutes until sauce thickens and oil rises to the top. Olive oil is an integral part of this sauce, so don’t discard it. Stir occasionally.

Stir a pinch of baking soda into the pizza sauce, and combine thoroughly. The reason for this is that the baking soda will cut the acidity of the tomatoes, and mellow down the sauce.